A Conversation with Leia
by Afficted
Summary: Post-Last Jedi. Rey tells General Leia Organa what transpired, and receives some wisdom in return.


After the handful of survivors (few enough to fit on a hunk of junk freighter) had found a new refuge to hide out and regroup, further conversations were possible. Rey was able to sit down with the General and relay everything that had happened between her, the General's brother and the General's son.

Leia Organa listened to the whole thing without interruption. She betrayed little emotion, other than a great deal of exhaustion. After Rey had finished, the General had lifted her lips into something that was almost a smile.

"I'm glad you had some time with them. I'm glad you believed in them. I wish they had believed in themselves more."

"Luke," Rey stammered, "I didn't know him as well as you."

"Yes, I know Luke. I've known Luke for forty years." (Rey noted that Leia spoke in the present rather than the past tense about her brother.) "I've seen him when he was young, eager, and so idealistic, Rey, you would have been amazed." Leia's smiled widened. "He had this high voice, almost childlike." Leia suddenly turned to Rey and her facial expression changed to something nervous, excited, her eyes wide. "'I'm Luke Skywalker and I'm here to rescue you!'" She laughed, a hoarse full -throated laugh. "He was so foolish looking and short in that stormtrooper outfit. In those days, if you looked at him funny, he seemed like he'd jump through the ceiling. But that enthusiasm, Rey, that nature he had…. He was so open at the time. Even though he'd get sullen and argue with Han, there was something about him so eager to take things on faith. That Han could come around to join the fight. That the Force was real. That we were all in the right….." She shook her head. "I was self-righteous and enthusiastic and determined in my own way. Way too serious, but…. It served me well." She paused and looked down. "Then Luke got his training and he became a new person. The naïve farm boy changed overnight into someone a lot more serious, confident and capable." She grinned. "It shocked Han to no end. The kid that he kept having to get out of trouble suddenly was a man who ended up pulling Han out of the fire. This Luke was a lot more dramatic. The way he talked was a bit ridiculous, really. Spent too much time around Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda and the like. But he still kept that fervent belief… that… that we were in the right, and the good…. The good would prevail. He took that belief into how he dealt with our father. He believed he could… redeem him."

Rey interrupted, "And he did! He did redeem your father! I thought… I thought I could do the same for Ben."

"I know you did. I know. I felt the same way briefly. I thought Han could bring him back. 'There's still good in him.' That was me practically quoting Luke. That was me putting a mother's desperate hope into a legend, a legend of how redemption is possible."

Rey repeated, "But Luke did redeem Anakin Skywalker…."

Leia smiled back at her, "You've heard the stories, of course. Luke turned himself in to the Imperials, to our father, and repeated over and over about how could feel the goodness in Darth Vader. And between that, and Luke almost being murdered in front of Vader's eyes, redemption was found, as Anakin Skywalker seized Emperor Palpatine, and hurled the monster to his death."

"Yes, that's the way it happened." Rey paused, almost afraid to ask. "Isn't it?"

"Exactly," Leia said. "That was exactly the way it was. And do you recall what happened then?"

"Vader…" said Rey, "Vader died."

"Indeed, he did. He died." Leia paused. "We all became heroes and legends for a while after that, but none more than Luke. His story, 'The Redemption of Darth Vader by Luke Skywalker' went out into the ether and became what Luke was known for most of all. Such a _great_ story. So romantic and beautiful. So a few years later, Luke is on Coruscant. I can't remember why. He was a popular man in the galaxy. Everybody wanted to meet him for some reason or another. Anyway, an old woman comes up to meet him, he leans down to hear what she has to say, and she slaps him sharply across the face and spits at his feet. And she says to him, 'Darth Vader killed thousands of people. He killed my son. He murdered children.' And she walked away. Let me ask you, Rey, what would have happened had my father lived?"

Rey just looked at her.

"I'll tell you," Leia continued, "If Darth Vader had been successfully taken into custody, he would have been prosecuted for some of the most vicious war crimes… so many, that there are, no doubt, victims of his that have been forgotten. You can get lost after a while in the sheer volume of his crimes. Most likely he would have been put to death; and even if we devised the most torturous method of execution we could think of, it still wouldn't be enough for some. Myself included, by the way." She paused and the look on her face was tired and bitter. "Redemption…." She shook her head. "Yes, Luke helped Anakin Skywalker see the good parts in himself that he had buried for so long, and our father responded by saving his son, and incidentally, ridding the galaxy of one of the worst tyrants of millennia. But redeemed? He had done too much, destroyed too many for true redemption to be a possibility. Luke tells me that Father was allowed to become a spirit, a part of the force, residing in peace with Obi-Wan and Yoda, and who knows how many other Jedi. And I'm telling you, if that information had gotten out, those few who still believed in the Force would probably have turned their backs on it. My father was not a stupid man, you see. He knew that he couldn't be truly redeemed. He knew that to find the good in himself would mean facing all the things that he had done. Better to die than to do that."

Realization dawned in Rey. "Ben has gone too far. He knows it."

"Yes," Leia nodded, "Yes, he does. We might have had a chance before, but…" She sighed, "Once he murdered his father… That was it. How, how do you come back from something like that? Such an act is unforgivable, most of all to the self. Do you think that if he were to 'find the good' in himself, he'd be able to live with that? No. His only choice was to die or embrace his path and to go down it to whatever end there's going to be. He told you that he wants to leave behind the past, 'To kill it' if he has to? Well, now you understand why."

Rey spoke her voice almost too soft to hear, "Does that mean I shouldn't have tried?"

"No, Rey. You showed compassion for my son, and who knows? Maybe that even gave him the strength to strike out against Snoke and to save you. But you will be facing him again, and it is important you understand as Luke came to understand. There are no simple answers or happy endings. Evil doesn't end when we 'redeem' our fathers and cut off a head of the beast. It just means we have to keep fighting and try to keep our hope alive. But that becomes exhausting after a while, and the losses accumulate, and sometimes… Sometimes, it is too much for those of us who have tried and been in the fight for so long. That's why we find our hope in new sources. In the idealistic, in the enthusiastic. In the young. You. Poe. Finn. That young woman, Rose. You and so many wonderful others like you will be the spark that keeps hope alive. I'm so glad we have you here."

General Leia Organa, once a princess, always a legend, leaned over and brushed her lips on Rey's forehead.


End file.
